Page 65

With her bandages in place and a borrowed shirt covering the blood on hers, Vida headed for the Embassy of the Nine.

The guards on either side of the gate stared at her as she passed them. She guessed the not a lot of bloody Gaian women hiked through the gates. She heard them calling up to the main building as she trudged past.

Daphne came out to greet her. “Vida, good lord. What happened?”

“I figured it out. I finally figured it out. I have a chance at finding them, but I need to get up there.”

She staggered and clung to Daphne when she was close enough.

They walked slowly into the building where Daphne let out a shrill whistle.

A woman with ice blue skin came forward. “Yes, madam?”

“I need some grafting patches and a clean dress, please, Tynyan.”

“Yes, madam. Right away.”

The woman glided away, and Daphne coaxed Vida into the lift. Vida was impatient. She wanted to get up, to get on her way to finding those who were lost, but her vision blurred.

“Relax, Vida. I have you.”

With a woman she knew she could count as a friend, she relaxed. In a quiet room, her clothing was removed, her wounds were cleaned and whatever a grafting patch was, it kicked the ass of stitches. Pale, shining gel showed where the bolt had entered but the ugly threads were gone.

The dress was loose, but it belted snugly at the waist, providing shape.

“You know I am not a fan of dresses.”

Daphne smiled, “I am afraid that it is all I wear most days. Now, let’s settle you and you can tell me what the hell happened.”

With the help of the housekeeper, Daphne got Vida to her feet and into a comfortable chair in the sitting room.

She was still drowsy from the drugs they had given her at the hospital, but Vida stared into Daphne’s eyes. “I figured out how to do it.”

“Do what, Vida?”

“To find those who were stolen and never retrieved. I have been trying to see the trail for the last six years, and I have failed. I have been looking at it from the wrong angle. I need to get onto the mother ship and get into one of the shuttle pathways. If I can see the trail and the Nine are agreeable, we can get someone to go looking for them.”

Vida swayed.

“How were you injured, Vida?”

“Oh, I was shot with a bolt gun by a serial killer.”

She smiled. “I saw her and I found her.”

The housekeeper was standing by; she said, “The news reports did mention a murderer with a surviving victim. No mention was made of this woman, though.”

Daphne snorted. “They never mention Vida. She and I were in primary and secondary school together. She could find me no matter where I hid. She could always see me, even if her eyes were closed.”

Vida leaned back and closed her eyes. “Can you make arrangements for me to visit the mother ship? I need to be up there. I need to see.”

The images of the two women in the room nodded to each other as if they thought she was asleep. Vida relaxed in the chair as they tiptoed from the room.

She was where she needed to be. The embassy was the best bet to get to the mother ship. Daphne also knew who she was and what her talent was. If anyone could plead her case, it would be the ambassador’s wife.

For now, she would rest and heal. Everything else would happen as it was meant to.

Hours later, she saw Daphne come in with a man whose body was outlined in deep green. Their connection was obvious.

“Are you sure she can do what you say she can do?”

Vida sighed. “If that is a whisper, you need to work on your covert voices. Your Gaian speech is excellent, Ambassador.”

She saw his body jerk in surprise.

He moved around the room in silence, and she smiled, “If you are going to jump out that window, you might want to open it first.”

“You really can see through your eyelids.”

She blinked slowly, adjusting to the dimness in the room. “Sort of. I can see the energy of living creatures and track them back by the trail they have left behind. I can see it. I have always been able to see it. I have always been able to spot Daphne as well.”

Daphne turned on a light. “The better Vida knows you, the faster she can find you.”

Vida stretched slowly, not wanting to tear the patches on her shoulder. “In your case, Ambassador, I used your connection to Daphne.”

He smiled and sat nearby. “I am pleased to meet you, Vida Senior. Call me Apolan.”

“Apolan then. Call me Vida. Has Daphne explained what I am after?”

“The Tokkel ship with your people on it. Some of the first ones to be taken just as we arrived.”

“I am not looking for the ship. I am looking for my parents.”

She sat up and gave him a serious look, only slightly marred by her flinch.

He scowled. “Surely, if you find one, you find the other.”

“I really doubt that they will still be on a ship.”

She scowled. “If I can find their path, I can find them.”

Daphne cleared her throat. “You might need someone a little more aggressive for the retrieval mission.”

“If I can find the path, I will call Ianka. They are her parents, too.”

“Right. Ula has been working on a probe. This might just be the missing piece of the puzzle.”

Vida smiled. “Is that where she went? I have been missing the sight of her in the sky.”

Apolan frowned, “You were shot.”

She shrugged with her good shoulder. “I got in the way of a bolt gun. It won. I can’t really see inanimate objects in someone’s hand unless they always use them.”

“What use have you put your talent to?”

Apolan smiled politely.

Daphne grinned, “She rescues miners, finds lost children and tracks down the elderly who have wandered off.”

“Day or night?”

Daphne snickered and waved for Vida to explain.

“I do my best seeing when my eyes are bound during daylight. At night, it is fine, but during the day, the multiple images cause me to lose focus.”

“Bound?”

“Yeah, I keep a swath of fabric to tie my eyes shut. It helps me see nothing but the traces left behind by people.”

“What about the buildings?”

“Well, I have noticed that living beings tend to walk around buildings and through doorways. If you are following a trail, you step where they stepped.”

He nodded. “How does this talent of yours work in a confined environment?”

She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “It doesn’t. I will have to send my senses out and find the path that my parents were taken down. Once we have a trajectory, I will see if I can get help in approaching their destination.”

“You wish the Nine to help you in jetting yourself across the stars in search of a Tokkel ship with folk who may be dead by now?”

He spoke slowly and clearly as if working it through his thoughts.

Vida got to her feet. “I would know if they were dead. I can feel my sister, half a world away from me. My family is bound into my mind and senses.”

She crossed to the open part of the room and began to pace. Daphne quietly got to her feet, drew the curtain and turned off the light.

Apolan’s gasp was harsh.

“Daphne has told me that my being upset is striking. Normally, I am completely neutral, but when I get like this . . .”

She held up her hands and stared at the swirling glow of light and dark energy.

Daphne turned the lights on again, and Vida concentrated on balancing her mind. It was a delicate operation. The hole in her life left by her parents was something she felt every day. The burning ache of her twin half a world away was something else.

Ianka had a talent for the physical while Vida worked on the psychic level. They had argued all of their life, and their parents had let them do it, knowing better than to get between their stubborn brood. Their house was perpetually dark. None of them needed light to navigate in their home, but Ianka had craved daylight, fresh air and the stimulation of others . . . until the Tokkel attacks.

Their parents were at the lab on the day it was raided. No one knew what was happening, and Vida could only stare skyward. Ianka had shaken her into alertness, and they had begun to seek out those who had been pinned under rubble, while avoiding the Tokkel troops on the ground.

Vida created a mental template for the Tokkel and used it to hide those around her while Ianka rounded up survivors and brought them back to their dark home. Vida kept watch for six days until her body and mind were at the shattering point, and then, the Nine fought the Tokkel off in the skies above.

Vida had spent every spare moment on the ruins of the lab where the best and brightest of Gaia had been taken without a whisper of warning. Other ships had taken Gaians from surrounding areas, but the scientists had been first to disappear, and they had been the only ones that had never been traced. No bodies, no wreckage, no sign that they had ever existed, except for the families left behind.

She could feel the power crackling along her skin, but it was still within normal ranges. She didn’t need to discharge a bolt quite yet.

Daphne nodded, “What happened yesterday, Vida?”

“I was attending to my morning errands when Detective Morser found me and told me that the murderer we had been tracking before the attacks had surfaced again. This time, he didn’t play games. He took me to where she had been before she was taken and I was able to follow the path. The officers pulled up with all fanfare, and he came to the window before I could alter my vision to normal. The bolt knocked me to the ground and the officers were able to rescue the proposed victim before she had been more than kidnapped.”

She carefully touched her wound with her fingers. “Those grafts worked really well.”

Apolan got to his feet, looked at his wife and nodded before returning his gaze to Vida. “The shuttle will be here at noon tomorrow. Be ready to travel.”

“Thank you, Ambassador.”

She smiled and bobbed a quick curtsy. With steady steps, she walked to the window, opened it and exhaled. The light was dimming and the pent-up energy of her frustration came out in a mist of power that floated out and over the gardens below.

Daphne came up beside her and rubbed her good shoulder. “I am glad that you are fine, Vida.”

Vida turned and leaned her forehead against Daphne’s shoulder while she bawled. She was the farthest from fine that she had ever been.